Aerothermal Engineer

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

9d•Onsite

About The Position

Are you searching for impactful aerothermal work furthering innovative technologies, especially in the area of hypersonics? Do you enjoy working with a team of forward-thinking engineers to improve our capability to predict advanced high-speed flow phenomena? If so, we're looking for someone like you to join our team at APL. We are seeking an engineer to design and analyze aerothermal capabilities of new and existing precision engagement weapon systems. As a member of our team, you will contribute to exciting projects supporting several sponsors, including the U.S. Department of War (DoW). Our team strives to develop, apply, and maintain deep expertise in aerothermodynamics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and ground and flight testing. You will work alongside experts who have a real passion for conducting research to advance our country's capabilities.

Requirements

Have a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Have 5+ years of experience in conducting CFD simulations, running wind tunnel tests, or analyzing and developing aerothermal predictions.
Have prior experience coding and using MATLAB scripts and functions.
Have excellent oral and written communication skills.
Are willing and able to travel occasionally to attend meetings or tests at other government and contractor sites.
Are able to obtain a Interim Secret level security clearance by your start date and can ultimately obtain a Secret level clearance. If selected, you will be subject to a government security clearance investigation and must meet the requirements for access to classified information. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Have a M.S. or Ph.D degree or equivalent experience in weapon system design and development with a focus on aerothermodynamics.
Have experience with CFD++, US3D, Kestrel, or other advanced DoW or commercial CFD codes, as well as experience generating high-quality CFD meshes using Pointwise, Link3D, GridPro, or other grid generation tool.
Have strong programming skills in Bash (or similar shell equivalent) and/or Python.
Have shown initiative, motivation, and flexibility.

Responsibilities

Conduct aerothermal analyses for hypersonic flight vehicles operating in high-temperature, high-enthalpy flow environments.
Apply high-fidelity CFD and multi-physics models to predict aerodynamic heating, boundary layer transition, shock interactions, and aerothermal loads.
Support the design, evaluation, and maturation of thermal protection systems (TPS), high-temperature materials, and thermal management technologies.
Analyze aerothermal interactions associated with air-breathing and rocket-based hypersonic propulsion systems.
Plan and conduct wind tunnel tests and perform post-test analysis.
Support associated test activities including pre-test predictions, test design, instrumentation requirements, and documentation.
Craft reports and presentations to communicate results to team members and government partners.